


Where The Dreamers Lay

by Nina_Dances_In_Technicolor (orphan_account)



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician)
Genre: Babyfic, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Schmoop, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-31
Updated: 2012-10-31
Packaged: 2017-11-17 11:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/550846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Nina_Dances_In_Technicolor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The two loves of Adam's life in snapshots, learning to communicate and love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where The Dreamers Lay

**Author's Note:**

> Through the dark there's a way  
> There's a love, there's a place  
> Where we don't have to hide  
> We can dream all night  
> So follow me through the sky  
> And watch the oceans collide  
> Just keep holding my hand  
> As we're taking off  
> I know where we'll land
> 
> \--"[Nirvana](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt8oNIR5afE)," Adam Lambert

The first thing Adam learns about speaking baby is this: There are only two sounds, unhappy crying and happy gurgles.

Mostly when he's holding Riff he gets the happy gurgles—Lee even cracks a few jokes about how Adam is an infant sedative—but the first time he and Sauli take Riff overnight is also the night Riff develops a bad case of colic, and it's a total nightmare.

Which is when he discovers there are actually three sounds: happy gurgles, unhappy crying, and _really_ unhappy screaming. 

Sauli comes downstairs around three in the morning and slides his arms around Adam's waist to still him in the middle of yet another circle of the living room, rests his head against Adam's back to feel the vibration of the quiet version of "Hey Jude" Adam is singing while he tries to bounce Riff back to sleep. Adam turns to him, dismayed; this thing they've made is still so new and so fragile, so often the victim of unknown words and culture clashes, and Adam is pretty sure if anybody'd ever sprung a screaming baby on him at three in the morning anything less than six months into a relationship, he would've bolted.

Sauli just smiles at him and reaches up to take Riff out of his arms, murmuring in Finnish babyspeak, settling Riff into the crook of one arm and bouncing on his heels while he rubs Riff's upset tummy with the heel of his other hand. 

Riff goes from screaming to crying to sniffling to snuffling, and Sauli bundles him into a loose swaddle before rocking him and settling him onto one shoulder to pat his back.

Riff spits up all over Sauli's nightshirt and coos. Sauli sets him neatly back in Adam's arms, strips off his shirt, and smiles. "It always works."

"Oh my god," Adam answers. "Tell me next time. I could've grabbed a—here—" He makes a swipe at the stack of burp cloths on the coffee table with his free hand, and Sauli grabs his fingers. 

"I knew it would happen," Sauli tells him. "But now he is happy, so we are happy, yes?"

"You're magic," is Adam's reply, and he almost doesn't care about the furrowed eyebrows that tell him Sauli didn't quite make the connection there.

They sleep almost four hours before Riff wakes them crying for a bottle, and by the time Adam's stumbling down the stairs to heat one Sauli's on his way back up with one already prepared.

He sits on the bed behind Adam, arms around Adam's shoulders, while Adam watches Riff suck up another meal, and after awhile Adam hears a sound in his ear—Sauli humming one of the songs he loves so much that Adam still wants desperately to know.

Then Riff lets out a gurgle that sounds more like a squeal, and Adam ups his count of baby noises to four.

\----------

"Okay, this is _not okay_ ," Adam protests, holding Riff out to Sauli. "He's doing that stinky poop crying again and I changed the last three, it's your turn."

Sauli grins and lays Riff out on a blanket. "It is not as hard as you think," he says, whipping Riff's diaper open with one hand and grabbing a wipe with the other with almost scary efficiency. "Babies do not break if you move their legs. They are just as, mm . . . " Sauli furrows his eyebrows and frowns. Then he grabs Adam's hips, leaving Riff's bare bottom to dry, and swivels them a little from side to side with his hands. "To move like that."

"Flexible?"

Sauli's smile gets brighter. "Yes. They are just as flexible as anyone else. They have all the same parts. Ah! No, you are not going without your nap." He puts gentler hands on Riff's hips than he did on Adam's and pulls him back. 

"We call them diapers in America," Adam tells him, and gets a sheepish chuckle. "I think 'nappies' is British."

"Yes," Sauli agrees, and puts a piece of tape in place. Riff lets out a displeased squeal. Sauli makes a face at him. "I know. Your life is very hard. I do not know how you do not just give up on it all."

Adam snickers. Riff finally escapes Sauli's hands with a pleased "da!" and crawls off across the floor. Sauli puts both of his hands theatrically up to his head and shakes it. Adam laughs loudly enough that Riff falls on his butt trying to turn around to see why the big shiny human is making strange sounds, and Sauli laughs with him.

Riff joins in right around the time Adam tilts Sauli's face for a kiss, and Adam thinks it's a great soundtrack.

\--------------

"I love you."

"I love you too," Adam hears from the other end of the phone. "But that is a very strange way to start a telephone call, love."

"Is there something else I should say instead?" There's a clink of china from Sauli's end of the call—probably him washing up the dishes. One person alone doesn't make the dishwasher worth it. Sauli chuckles.

"No. I like that you say it. What is that buzzing sound?"

"Luggage belt letting everybody know to get their asses off the belt or get hit by falling suitcases," Adam answers, and this time the laugh he gets is full and bright.

"Then you are here?"

"Just a taxi ride away. And then I can get into your pants."

More laughter, and as Adam scans the belt for his bag he grins. "No, we will have company. Just for a little bit, for dinner."

"And then I can get into your pants?"

"No, then you can help me to do the dishes."

Adam lets out a theatrical groan. "Let me guess, then I get to wash the sheets."

"No. I have already changed those. Why would you ask me a question like that? Do you think I am, how is it Bradley says, the ice queen?"

Adam laughs so hard he has to sit down on the metal strip surrounding the luggage belt, first running out of air and then, when he whoops in a big breath, going on until there are tears standing in his eyes. He's vaguely aware there are a couple of people looking at him like he's gone out of his mind, but he's used to that, really, so instead he focuses on the way Sauli starts to giggle, and then snort, and then they're laughing together on opposite ends of Los Angeles while Adam's bag goes past on the carousel.

He can hear Sauli calling him from the door as soon as the taxi lets him off at the foot of the driveway (and fuck but he's still torn between getting the damned thing fixed and leaving it as a paparazzi deterrent), and sets off up the driveway on foot. By the time he can see the front door and the pair of cars in front of it that aren't theirs, Sauli's arms are around his waist and his lips are warm on the corner of Adam's mouth before he snatches the carry-on out of Adam's hand and holds it out where Adam can't easily reach.

"I will kiss you better when we are inside, after you have said hello," Sauli declares. "But if I did it right now I do not think I would be able to stop myself, and there is food on the stove that will burn."

"I love you," Adam says again, and Sauli slides his free arm around Adam's waist, leans on his shoulder as they finish the walk up to the porch.

"So Neil's here, huh?" he asks, as Sauli boosts the carry-on over the porch railing to avoid the stairs. Sauli nods.

"Yes. And also—"

Adam hears the sound of running feet. "Papa!"

Adam pulls his hands in front of himself and drops into a crouch, and as a head hits his shoulder and bounces back and lets out a gleeful giggle he's very, very happy he's learned to speak baby.

It's the sweetest-sounding language in the world.


End file.
